Russian History At the Movies Trivia Quiz

Answer: Ingrid Bergman

Set in Paris in 1928, the 1956 film "Anastasia" is a dramatization of the true story of how former officials of the Russian Imperial government scheme to obtain 10 million pounds held in a British bank. The men try and pass off a mentally ill Polish woman as the Czar's daughter Anastasia, and they have to try and convince the Czar's surviving relatives that she is indeed the princess.

Answer: Nicholas and Alexandra

"Nicholas and Alexandra" was released in 1971 and starred Michael Jayston as Nicholas II and Janet Suzman as his wife, the Czarina Alexandra. The film begins with the 1904 birth of the Czarevitch Alexei, covers the war years and the Czar's abdication, and ends with the 1918 execution of the entire family by the Bolshevik government.

Answer: Citizen X

Based on the book "The Killer Department" by Robert Cullen, "Citizen X" is a dramatization of the hunt for Soviet serial killer Andrei Chikatilo, who murdered over 50 children and teenagers between 1978 and 1990. The film stars Donald Sutherland, Stephen Rea, Max Von Sydow, and Jeffrey Demunn.

Answer: Enemy at the Gates

"Enemy at the Gates" is a dramatization of an incident during the Battle of Stalingrad in which Russian sniper Vasili Zaitsev, portrayed by Jude Law, engages in a "duel" with German sniper Major Erwin Konig, played by Ed Harris. While Zaitsev was a real Soviet sniper who fought in the battle, the "duel" and the character of Konig are fictional.

Answer: Omar Sharif

Based on Boris Pasternak's 1957 novel, "Doctor Zhivago" is a fictional story of a married Russian physician and poet living in Moscow prior to World War I. Zhivago serves in the Russian Army during the war and experiences life under the new Bolshevik regime. Moving to a provincial town, Zhivago begins an affair with a nurse named Lara that he knew during the war.

He is then drafted into the Red Army, and finds his family gone upon his return, and lives with Lara until she escapes the country. Years later, Zhivago dies of a heart attack on a street in Moscow.

Answer: The Russian Revolution

Told in a mixture of drama and interviews with actors playing important people from American journalist John Reed's life, "Reds" tells the true story of how Reed and his wife, Louise Bryant ( Diane Keaton) become leaders in the Communist Party and labor movements in the United States, and then go on to cover World War I and the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia.

Answer: The Death of Stalin

While not entirely historically accurate, "The Death of Stalin" makes a dark comedy out of the real-life intrigues and jockeying for power following the 1953 death of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin. The film stars Steve Buscemi, Paddy Considine, Jason Isaacs, and Michael Palin.

Answer: The Scarlet Empress

Princess Sophia of Anhalt-Zerbst, a minor German state, travels to Russia in 1744 at age 15 to marry the heir to the Russian throne, Peter III. Finding her husband to be slow-witted and uninterested in governing, Sophia embraces her new country and plots with several high-ranking Army officers to overthrow her husband.

When Peter's mother, the Empress Dowager Elizabeth, dies in 1762, he assumes the throne, but Sophia, now called Catherine, soon deposes Peter and becomes Czarina Catherine the Great of Russia.

Answer: The ship's crew was served rancid meat

In one of the most famous films of the silent era, Soviet director Sergei Eisenstein tells the true story of the 1905 mutiny on the Russian battleship Potemkin. After the crew is served rotten meat and the officers order them to eat it, several sailors refuse and they are ordered to be executed.

The firing squad also rebels, and the sailors throw the officers overboard and take the ship. Eisenstein's film has been referenced in many other movies since.

Answer: Soviet Ambassador to the US

Born in 1919, Dobrynin was appointed Ambassador to the United States in March, 1962. Dobryin remained in that post through the presidencies of Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter and Reagan (1962 to 1986). As depicted in the film, Dobryin was instrumental in the negotiations between Kennedy and Khrushchev that ended the crisis before it escalated into war.